Saturday, 23 November 2013

Drama On Third Mainland Bridge

When I die, I will die with a smile on my face. I know this for a fact because two days ago I almost did, and I was smiling…

It was on Third Mainland Bridge. I had a meeting on the island. Everything was fine until I began to hear a funny sound. I wasn’t sure if it was my car since all my windows were up. I wound down and sure enough, it was. As I wondered what it could be, the car stopped. It just stopped. Smack in the middle of third mainland bridge. I watched horrified as cars swerved in all directions trying to avoid hitting me and other cars. With all the chaos going on, I’m not sure how I got the car to the side of the road.

Now what? I wondered. I had no clue where to start checking so I called a couple of friends. Sadly everyone was too far off to do anything immediately. I stood by the bridge and watched as cars whizzed past; even with my hazard lights and C-caution, they seemed like they would run into the car any minute.

After what seemed like an eternity but maybe only 20 minutes, I noticed an SUV with it’s hazard lights on, some distance away, reversing. On third mainland bridge! (If you know how cars drive on that bridge, you’ll understand how big a stunt that is ) I was too desperate to hope it was me they were coming for so I looked away. Fortunately, it was. He wound down and asked what the problem was. I didn’t have a clue and told him so. He got down with his driver and they took over.

Brake fluid, power steering, coolant, engine oil, fuel, everything was A-okay. ‘There’s nothing wrong as far as we can see, he said. Is there anyway we can help?’

I told him I couldn’t think of anything especially since I didn’t know what the problem was.

He asked if I had a cord they could use to tow my car. I didn’t. He asked if I had a knife so they could cut my back seatbelt. I didn’t. He was just as worried as I was that LASTMA would show up any minute and tow the car to their office. I finally found a cuticle remover and amazingly, they were able to cut the belt with it.

His driver drove my car, while I rode in his. We found a safe place to park in a shopping complex around Obalende. He asked where I was off to initially, I told him. He offered to drop me off even though he was headed a different way.

Before getting off, I asked for his number. I wanted to call later to thank him properly and to make sure he was a real human being; I know how rare it is to find help on third mainland and I’m eternally grateful that someone cared enough to help.

So, Ejiro, you have rekindled my faith in humanity once more. God bless you for what you did. May you never lack help when you find yourself in need. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

You know, we keep talking about Nigeria and how messed up things are but quite frankly, I meet decent people more than I meet crooks. Being an easygoing, live and let live kind of person, you don’t want to know how many times I’ve been taken for granted but for every time my trust is betrayed, I meet people who warm my heart with their sincerity and kindness...

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hmmmmm. So touching.Indeed there so many like Mr Ejiro but they are sometimes afraid to help.Either from past experience or what they heard from people.I thank God for you.To you Mr Ejiro,God will make you bigger!!!